Panelists: Don't Lower Combat Standards to Accommodate Women

The military should not lower combat standards so women soldiers can qualify, according to former Defense Department spokesman J.D. Gordon and Glen Downs, chief of staff to North Carolina Congressman Walter Jones, both of whom appeared Tuesday on Newsmax TV's "America's Forum."

"The standards are there for a reason," Downs said, suggesting that the military should find other ways to ensure women can advance.

Gordon said discussion of lowering the standards is the epitome of "political correctness run amok."

"There are women that can do anything a man can do, but so few," Gordon said. "Like (martial arts champion) Ronda Rousey could probably be a Navy SEAL if she can get by the miles of swimming in the open ocean and carrying heavy packs in the mountains. But so few women can do that, the problem is the bureaucrats will lower the standard just to make sure women can get in.

"Now we saw that no women passed that Marine officer course for infantry. I don't think women should be in infantry. People have to realize men and women are different and that's OK. Look, women are in combat roles. They're fighter pilots, that's a combat role.

"So there's certain things women can do in combat and certain jobs they should not do. Like I don't believe they should be in infantry or Special Forces because that's going to lower the standard, and it's going to hurt recruiting and retention as well, because the guys serving with them will know it."

The men also weighed in on the Obama administration dispatching Navy ships to Yemen to block weapons shipments by Iran to Shiite Houthi rebels fighting in Yemen, something Gordon said should have happened much sooner.

"There's going to be a risk, but we can't continue to let Iran continue destabilizing the region," he said.

"So my only complaint with the White House is, why did it take this long? Why did it take until the Yemeni government fell by the Houthi rebels because the Iranians were sending weapons the whole time? It's a good move on behalf of the White House, it's just late. It's another crisis reaction, if you will, it's very reactive instead of proactive."

Not long ago the White House held up Yemen as the model of American involvement, illustrating the White House's worldview "that sees American power as the problem and that we ought to turn all these local counterterrorist operations over to local governments," Gordon said.

Obama considered the Yemeni operation successful because the Yemenis were to take a lead role, he added.

"We saw how that worked out — it didn't — and Iran has been sending weapons to the Houthi rebels for quite some time," he said. "It's taking a long time for the U.S. to respond because President Obama thinks the world would be a better place if we had less U.S. presence around the world.

"That's completely wrong. That power vacuum is being filled by countries like Iran that's aggressive, countries like Russia that's aggressive. So it's about time that we have more U.S. leadership to prevent these kinds of crises before they get out of control, like in Yemen."

The military should not lower combat standards so women soldiers can qualify, former Defense Department spokesman J.D. Gordon and Glen Downs, chief of staff to North Carolina Congressman Walter Jones, tell Newsmax TV.